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So The Berkeley Daily Planet gave an update on the conflict between Bay Area Outreach Ministries (an evangelical group that has permits for amplified sound) and several businesses near Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street that, frankly, are a little pissed at how loud the preaching is.
According to an earlier piece by the Daily Cal, the evangelizing has gone on for at least a decade, and there have been complaints for almost as long.
Chief among the enraged business owners is Marc Weinstein of Amoeba Music, who decided a petition would be the best way to deal with the disturbances. The biggest problem? According to the annoyed, the preachers just so happen to lower the noise levels as soon as the Noise Level Police (well, the city’s division on environmental health if you want to be official about it) get near.
Hold on a second. We think it’s reasonable to assume the city officials might say, “Hey, that preaching sounds just as loud as it did 100 yards back! How weird.”
But despite the noise monitors, the petition has other problems. The Daily Planet says the content of the preaching—and not the noise levels—plays the central role in the petition.
We understand that no sane person wants to be told they’re going to hell during their workday, but it isn’t the best way to go about stopping the preaching either—the city isn’t about to put chains on free speech.
As far as we can tell, there won’t be a resolution for a while and the businesses will keep on being angry. But we’ll let time decide that.
Image Source: maveric2003 under Creative Commons
Local Shops Claim Ministry Disrupts Peace [Daily Cal]
Telegraph Merchants Petition Against Noise from Amplified Preaching [Berkeley Daily Planet]
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